I applaud your efforts. Is this opportunity still available?I did this for over a year along the Oregon Coast for the NFS. I was the "handyman", so I cleaned bathrooms, mowed & trimmed areas, cut down trees, cleaned up after storms, etc. Basically I was responsible for keeping the park area clean and tidy. I also had to monitor the water quality, since it was along the coast, we were worried about salt water contamination in the well water. I spent about 30m to 1hr a day doing the work needed to maintain stuff and then once or twice a month would spend a few hours working on whatever project suited my fancy that particular time.
Let me edit to say that when my wife and I were traveling the country by camper van we had more than one conversation with “retired” folks who get paid minimally as campground hosts to keep things clean and orderly and also get to park their RV for free during their agreed upon term as the host. There are people that do this essentially year round all over the country at our national and state parks.
It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. Cleaning the bathrooms every day wasn't all that fun, but the rest of it was on my own time and was great. I was officially an employee, but they just reimbursed me for things, I didn't earn a salary or anything. I was generally too lazy to do the paperwork, so I got whatever the default was, which was around $60/month I think, which they just deposited into my account. I saw a NFS employee around once or twice a month, once they got to know I wasn't slacking and was doing what needed doing without issue.
In exchange I got a special spot to camp for as long as I wanted, right on the coast. This is basically impossible anywhere along the west coast for any length of time, unless you own private land or pay at a campsite(which is limited to 21 days pretty much universally). There is effectively zero boon-docking/primitive camping allowed on the coast(west) side of HWY 1 anywhere along the west coast. It's also very hard to find on the east side of HWY 1, but it is possible for tents and very small vehicle camping. Being able to live in amazing spots for as long as you want is a pretty great perk.
One of the rangers took me out and showed me the area and various different awesome and amazing spots. I still go visit those places on occasion.
Before that I did volunteer for a state park system as a Docent, where I took people on short hikes to special places and taught them about the local area wildlife. We got loads of tourists from all over the world and it was a great way to see and spend a bunch of time out in nature. This particular park, the only way to get to these areas or see the local wildlife was via a docent tour. I did this as a "weekend warrior", where I would spend a weekend a month as a docent. I often camped out there for the weekend, which wasn't technically allowed, but the rangers didn't mind some of us docents doing it, as long as we left no trace and wasn't visible(no campfires, etc).
I enjoyed both and did both while working remotely full-time. It wasn't a hard task for me to do either while maintaining a full time job.
Statistics: Posted by hvaclorax — Thu May 30, 2024 9:22 pm